


Snowfall

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Bad Puns, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 20:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9920837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor is trapped by an avalanche, and Jamie is less than impressed by his reaction to being rescued.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [keatulie](http://keatulie.tumblr.com), in response to [this otp prompt](http://keatulie.tumblr.com/post/135837742295/otpdisaster-person-a-digging-person-b-out-of).

It had all happened so quickly. One moment the Doctor had been standing beside him, gesturing wildly as he explained his latest plan, his fur coat flapping in the erratic gusts of wind. There had been a groaning sound from above them, the soft fall of snow on his neck and the sensation of it melting against his bare skin, then –

He vaguely recalled shouting, people around him diving out of the way. Instinctively, he had reached out towards the Doctor, torn between pulling him away and huddling next to him for reassurance. Everything seemed muffled, as though he was far away from what was happening around him. He remembered someone – one of the scientists, he thought – grabbing the back of his jumper, pulling him away as he tried in vain to hold onto the Doctor’s coat. Most of all, he remembered the inexorable rush of snow and ice toppling down onto them, the roaring sound it made as it hit the ground, blocking out everything, as if the white of it had been painted across his eyes.

“Jamie? Jamie, are you alright?” Gradually, he became aware that he was lying on the ground, Victoria sitting by him and anxiously shaking his shoulders. Sitting up, he blinked, trying to clear the pounding in his head and focus on his surroundings. Something was wrong, he thought. Someone was missing.

“Where’s -” He struggled with the words for a moment, trying to force them out of his head and into the deceptively peaceful air. “Where’s the Doctor?”

Victoria glanced at the pile of snow before them, that ruinous, catastrophic mass that seemed so harmless now, then turned back to him with wide, fearful eyes. That look told Jamie everything he needed to know, before she even stammered out, “I’m so sorry, Jamie -”

With a cry of anguish, Jamie pushed himself to his feet and launched himself towards where the Doctor had been standing. Surely the force of the impact had shattered the Doctor’s spine, had killed him instantly. But if it had not… Jamie knew of the Doctor’s vulnerability to the cold, and tried to push the image of him fighting against a slow, agonising death beneath the ice out of his mind. Ignoring the burning sensation in his bare fingers, he began to shovel great handfuls of the snow away, conscious of the helplessness and sadness of Victoria’s gaze, of the scientists shaking their heads. He knew that they believed the Doctor to be dead already, but despite their hopelessness, their abandonment, he could not simply give up. If there was even the remotest possibility of the Doctor’s survival, he would rather suffer that icy death himself than leave his friend to it.

After many long, agonising minutes of digging, Jamie felt something different beneath his numb fingers, something that was slightly too soft and warm to be snow. Peering down into the hole he had made, he saw a dark shape, and realised that it was the top of the Doctor’s head, adorned with snowflakes in a manner altogether too whimsical for the desperation of the moment. His heart pounding, Jamie scraped away more snow, almost unwilling to confuse for fear of finding the Doctor dead.

As he did so, however, the Doctor stirred, turning and dislodging more of the snow, pushing himself upwards to look at Jamie. Something settled inside Jamie at seeing the Doctor alive, the sense of separation from himself fading, the feeling of the Doctor’s shoulders beneath his hands anchoring him.

“Jamie...” the Doctor breathed, blinking as if he were just waking up, his expression soft and somewhat confused.

“Shh,” Jamie soothed him gently. “Don’t talk. We’ll get ye out of there.” He glanced back at the others, who were looking at each other in astonishment, unable to understand how the Doctor had managed to survive being crushed. “I’ll get ye out of there.”

The Doctor beamed at him in a way that seemed to assure Jamie that he had not been frightened in the least, that he had known Jamie would dig him out. As Jamie resumed digging, however, his smile turned into one filled with wicked delight. “Well, it’s certainly ‘ice to see you again, Jamie.”

It took a moment for this statement to sink in, as Jamie simply nodded absent-mindedly and continued shifting the snow. As it hit him, he dropped the handful he was holding and turned to stare at the Doctor in horror. The Doctor simply grinned in response, but his mirth was short-lived, as Jamie picked up a handful of snow and placed it firmly on top of the Doctor’s head, ignoring the squeak of protest that issued forth.

“Maybe next time I won’t rescue ye,” he threatened, fighting a smile, “if that’s the thanks I’m going tae get.”


End file.
